I’m a Three Stooges Fan Club member, trying to confirm a personal appearance by the “3” Stooges (Moe Larry and Shemp), on a bill with Wee Bonnie Baker, the Barretts and Don Hooton, after an appearance by the A.B. Marcus Revue. The movie “Queen of Burlesque” was also shown. I have a display ad, but no dates (or town shown). Believe it was the Summer of 1946, and may have been Shemp’s first appearance after Curly’s strokes. The National was advertised as air cooled and showed a phone number of JA-7863.
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks Frank Reighter

Over the past month or so they’ve been doing more work. Looks like it’s being performed by ChezCore.

The whole facade, top-to-bottom including the golden crown of the towers is clean! Now if only the terra-cotta could be repaired, parts repainted, the light bulbs replaced, we could have an alive National.

I should add that the facade wasn’t cleaned well and not very complete. They basically cleaned the areas under the little mini roof on the facade. They didnt bother to clean the towers (which are still filled with grime and grime)

Thy should have cleaned it all and lit it like it was back in that day

I was visiting downtown this past weekend and saw a crew of workers putting up scaffolding along the front of the building. Something is obviously happening with the theater. When I asked one of the crew members, he told me they were renovating the building for reuse as a theater. If this is true, I would be thrilled! They had knocked out bricks on the vacant side of the building and put in a garage door. The door was open and my friends and I ventured inside. Nothing has been done yet to renovate the interior, so whatever’s going on is still in the early stages!

I was checking out abandoned building online one time and came across this beautiful theater and instantly fell in love with it. I also decovered that Detroit is full of beautiful old buildings that are abandoned, but this one just realy stands out to me. I seriously hope that sombody steps in and restores this work of art before its too late.

Even though the seats have been removed, and no changes have occured, the value of the property is increasing for one reason, the new Compuware headquarters and hardrock cafe opening up this year right accross the street. Check it out: View link Crazy! $616,000!

Today the theatre’s seats are removed. To the right of the theatre, The Coumbia theatre once sat in the vacant land area. The national is located across the street from hard Rock Cafe Detroit. It would be nice to see it restored or Hard Rock could use it as a concert stage. The facade of the theatre used to light up, it was beatiful.